With nine goals conceded in two games, the goalkeeper is automatically in focus. Freiburg’s home-grown player Noah Atubolu (21), who was promoted to regular goalkeeper, has not yet been able to distinguish himself and cut an unfortunate figure again in the 2:4 against Dortmund.
Noah Atubolu has had to go behind nine times in the last two games. IMAGO/Jan Huebner
Even before the duel with BVB, Atubolu’s management record from his first three Bundesliga games was mixed. At the start at TSG Hoffenheim (2:1/ kicker grade 4.0), the U-21 national goalkeeper was lucky that a goal conceded after a serious mistake was disallowed for offside. Thanks to a solid performance, he kept a clean sheet against Bremen (1:0/3.0) before picking up five in Stuttgart (0:5/5.0).
He cut a particularly bad figure with the second goal, a low shot from Serhou Guirassy from a standing position about 17 meters into the goalkeeper’s corner. “He’s fighting and working his way into the season – like the entire team,” said sports director Klemens Hartenbach in an interview with kicker last week: “He hasn’t saved us any points single-handedly, but he hasn’t cost us any points either.”
He creates a base from which the upward swings will come.
Hartenbach can certainly gain something from this gradual process of getting used to it, but at the same time he is of course hoping for improvements: “He is creating a basis from which the swings will rise. It is important that he reflects on every game and every situation and adapts his behavior accordingly Then he can build on every game.”
Uncertainty instead of brilliant parades
After the 90 minutes on Saturday, one has to say: It is a difficult road for Atubolu to complete the base – and there is still some need for adjustments. The hope of being able to excel against a top team like Dortmund was not fulfilled. On the contrary.
Instead of brilliant parades, the spectators saw uncertainty from the highly gifted new regular goalkeeper, especially in the final phase. First, Mats Hummels poked the ball through his legs in the six-yard box to make it 2-3. Then a sharp pass rushed across the six-yard box, Atubolu stuck to the line and was lucky that his DFB junior colleague Youssoufa Moukoko didn’t react quickly enough. When Marco Reus stormed towards him, the keeper made himself (too) small; the ball flew over his arm into the net to make it 2:4.
I am not suprised.
“Noah got five goals two weeks ago and four today. That’s a real package. He almost couldn’t stand out,” says Christian Streich, summing up his young goalkeeper’s early weeks, but he doesn’t appear to be worried, at least publicly: ” That’s exactly what can happen. It happens with an older goalkeeper and a younger one in certain phases. There are phases like that, I’m not surprised. So everything’s okay.”
Atubolu has spoken to Michael Müller and will continue to speak to the goalkeeping coach. “And then we go into the next game,” says Streich, who has a lot of trust in his specialists on the coaching staff: “Michael does most of the work with him, then the rest of us coaches are also here. But they do a great job, Michael is a great goalkeeping coach , he has already experienced a lot, he is trained by Krone (Andreas Kronenberg, national goalkeeping coach, editor’s note).”
No risk in the construction: less quality, but praise from Hartenbach
Müller and Atubolu will naturally not only talk about the goals conceded and will try to find a way for the young keeper to regain his composure and self-confidence. Actually a great strength of the model athlete, who sometimes seemed tense against Dortmund. While it was already clear that Atubolu needs to improve in terms of his control of the penalty area, he is fundamentally talented in football. In the current situation, however, he doesn’t have much confidence in the build-up game and avoids the risk.
Quite understandable, but as a result the SC lacks quality in some scenes compared to the previous season. Hartenbach thinks Atubolu’s approach in this area is correct. “We recently had Mark Flekken in goal, who was one of the best players in the league with both feet and took risks in the build-up. Noah doesn’t try to be a Flekken II with all his might, but also exercises caution in risk assessment. That’s good,” said Hartenbach before the Dortmund game.
Now more than ever, the most important thing will be for Atubolu to keep some balls. It’s best to have a difficult one so that you can be of help to the team and radiate security to those in front of you. Next chance: On Thursday in the Europa League at Olympiakos Piraeus. The SC goalkeeper will probably have a lot to do in the cauldron of the Greek port city.
2023-09-18 19:40:48
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